Profile

The ALFRED EHRHARDT STIFTUNG is committed to promoting the study of the work of Alfred Ehrhardt, a photographer, documentary filmmaker and outstanding representative of the New Objectivity movement. The foundation was established in November 2002 by the artist’s son, the Munich investment manager Dr. Jens Ehrhardt, in order to preserve his father’s artistic legacy and estate—which includes drawings, graphic works, photographs, negatives, films and papers—and make it available to a wide public. In January 2010 the foundation moved from Cologne to Berlin, a step made to enhance the foundation’s public presence.

In addition to operating as an archive, the foundation is also committed to presenting contemporary photography and media art. Exhibitions have a special dialogical approach, which provides an encounter between contemporary positions addressing themes intrinsic to Ehrhardt’s work—nature and the construct of the natural—and original photographs and films by Alfred Ehrhardt. This dialogue is then continued in the form of events and discussions and is recapitulated in accompanying publications.

The foundation also oversees the ALFRED EHRHARDT HOUSE, which opened in Triptis, Thuringia in the spring of 2008. Built around 1800, the birth house of the artist was very dilapidated after a long period of vacancy. The house was extensively renovated, and an exhibition space designed by an architect from the Dessau Bauhaus was installed to provide an overview of Alfred Ehrhards artistic oeuvre.